1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing apparatus for imparting a fixer solving or swelling a toner to the toner, and then and for fixing the toner on a recording material, and to an image forming apparatus including the same fixing apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, and a printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus employing heat fixing method which heats and melts a toner on a recording material, and then, presses the toner to fix it on the recording material is known. In this type of the image forming apparatus, a heating treatment at a fixing unit is responsible for 50% or more of power consumption. Thus, it is efficient to restrain the power consumption at the fixing unit as an energy saving measure for the overall image forming apparatus.
Conventionally, a various of fixing types which do not employ the heat fixing method have been proposed. Among them, a wet fixing method using a fixer for solving or swelling a toner for carrying out a fixing treatment is known. In this wet fixing method, the toner is fixed on a recording material by imparting the fixer to the toner for solving or swelling the toner. In this method, since heating treatment accompanying large electric power consumption such as that in the heat fixing method is eliminated, it can be said that this method is an excellent fixing method as an energy saving measure. Additionally, since a warm-up period as in the heat fixing method is not necessary, a quick start is possible. Image forming apparatuses employing the abovementioned wet fixing method include ones disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No.3290513, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. H8-72386 and No. H9-78039, for example.
However, in the conventional wet fixing method, since the fixer is imparted to the entire surface of a recording material in a state where toner is attached, the fixer is also imparted to surface parts of the recording material on which the toner is not attached. Consequently, a large quantity of fixer is impregnated into the recording material, and thus, there is such a problem that the recording material tends to curl or wrinkle.